Old Wounds and Old Sounds

No Action/Amid the Old Wounds - Split
Labels: Time as a Color, etc.

This new Split-7inch by NO ACTION & AMID THE OLD WOUNDS is a DIY-beauty. The lyrics and credits are type-written and the vinyl comes with a handmade inlay. The special thing about it is that every one of the 350 records is one of a kind, cause the black inlays differ from one another. That's lovely!

Personally I didn't know NO ACTION before, despite them being togehter for well over 10 years now and releasing stuff on striclty no capital letters. The four-piece hails from Australia and apparently one of their members was part of NEBRASKA, a forgotten band I quite liked back then. NO ACTION get compared to HÜSKER DÜ, THE HATED, EVERGREEN or ONE LAST WISH and you can't speak against it. It's somewhere caught inbetween the Mid-80s and early 90s, the time before "Emo" got bigger in terms of mainstream attention. I'd also like to add THE PINE as a reference and as coincidence has it, they did a Split with Roger King in 2013. 

While listening to their songs I get way nostalgic. It's impressive how sincere and genuine this style can sound in 2023. They got two shorter songs for the Split, with "III" being pretty uptempo and "Monument to Taste" being on the lighter, relaxed site of things. The mix adds to the retro-feeling as the NO ACTION-site sounds quiet minimalistic and pure and... "old".

AMID THE OLD WOUND is of course Daniel Becker (ex-DUCT HEARTS, ex-WISHES ON A PLANE), the founder of Time as a Color Records. These are his first new songs since 2022's "Rebreather", which I totally digged. Daniel continues at his most intimate and delivers two reduced acoustic tracks full of melancholy, heartache and honest feelings. AMID THE OLD WOUNDS once again found some nice, poetic words and -as cheesy as it might sound- the straight way to the heart. It's a sureshot for anyone into this Emo-tinged Singer-Songwriter-style of DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL, THE NEW AMSTERDAMS, ONELINEDRAWING or JEREMY ENIGK. Be on the lookout for more, as "Hypothetically Speaking II" and "The Uninvited" are part of an ongoing series called "Half Alive"...

The Split-7inch was released by Time a a Color, strictly no capital letters, Magic Hour, Polar Summer, Rufen Publishings, Softseed Music & Salto Mortale Music.

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